Targeted Youth Support Pathfinder Derbyshire County Council

1. Targeted Youth Support PathfinderDerbyshire County Council Outline plan for Phase 2 for presentation to 0-19 Steering Group, 7 June 2006 Version 0.1 – 2 June 2006

2. Derbyshire has commenced this project within this landscape Statistics for Bolsover/Staveley/Brimington area Source: PLASC Connexions Derbyshire County Council

3. How we approached the project

4. Project overview Mobilise Discover Deepen Develop Deliver 1 2 3 Decision points Launch meetings Focused Interviews Senior management briefing Senior management briefing Senior mgt Develop plan with project manager Consolidate findings Service deliveryand users (young people/ families) Focused interviews /Groups Young Person’s consultations Multi-agency Workshop 25 April Multi-agency Workshop/s May May - Oct ‘06 Feb - May ‘06 All 14 TYS Pathfinders have followed this overall process in this phase

5. We have engaged with stakeholders in a number of different ways • Consultations with groups of young people and parents • A questionnaire completed by young people • One on one focus interviews with councillors, directors, managers and frontline staff • Group focus interviews with operational staff • A multi-agency workshop mapping young people’s journeys • Discussion with key strategy groups including • Chesterfield and North East LIG • DAAT JCG • CAMHS • Connexions Partnership • Youth Service, Education Welfare joint meetings • Bolsover District Council • Derbyshire County Council Community Economic Development Team • Teenage Pregnancy Group The involvement of young people and frontline staff has been at the core of our work

6. We have involved many different services Family Resource Workers Teenage Pregnancy Co-ordinators Personal Advisers Support Workers (Exclusion) School Nurses Education Social Workers 43 Interviews Youth Sport Officers Project Workers 66 participating in multi-agency workshop Substance Mis-Use Workers Community Care Workers Specialist Midwifes 36 participating in Group Interviews Health Visitors Youth Workers Community Workers (CED) Youth Justice Service Assistants Sexual Health Advisers ASBO Co-ordinators Youth Involvement Officers (Police) Headteachers & Assistant Headteachers Domestic Abuse Co-ordinators Sports Development Officers BIP Co-ordinators Social Services Housing Officers

7. We have involved approximately 200 young people in this phase • We have engaged with 27 young people through the following existing groups • 39 Steps pre-e2e (13-15 year olds) • Chamber Training e2e (16-18 year olds Bolsover and Shirebrook) • Little Angels (Young Mums) (17-21 year olds) • Zone Youth Club (13-16 year olds) • Chantry Youth Club (11-14 year olds) • We also received 144 completed questionnaires from young people all over the area through • Library Services to young people • Connexions PAs in schools including Ashgate Croft • Youth Service • Community Workers and Connexions staff conducted photographic exercises with young people, they provide us with a visual representation of their environment and the young people have added captions about the issues

8. Young people say that having nothing to do, alcohol and drugs are the biggest issues for them What do you think are the issues facing young people in your area today? * * * * = important issues even though lower numbers of responses Source: TYSP Young People’s questionnaire

9. What young people are saying about not having enough places to go and things to do “We used to hang out at the bus stop but it got vandalised” “We end up getting drunk/smoking and vandalising” “I take place in a society for potheads!” “Something like pictures or swimming for boring days” “We need somewhere to go and talk about personal problems” I don’t like it when there is fighting, it scares me but I stick with my mates” “Give us more jobs to keep us occupied, more things to do to get us off the street like a non-alcoholic bar” Source: TYSP Young People’s consultations

10. Most young people who had contacted services for help, feel that the services were easy to get in touch with The youth centre and Connexions are the easiest to get in touch with - Housing and the community centre the least easy Source TYSP: Young people’s questionnaire

11. Poor service practice identified by ‘red flags’ at the multi-agency workshop includes examples of: poor or non-existent inter-agency working, and issues with targets and funding “In one case meeting 24 agencies turned up of which 17 didn’t know others were involved” Connexions PA Poor assessment, referral and feedback Staff in services are generally not aware of exactly what services provide what to whom and therefore may not be able to refer a young person on Agencies do not share information Lack of clarity on roles, including lead Service design and delivery which does not meet needs The vast majority of frontline staff are unaware of the County data protocols The need to meet hard targets limits willingness to refer on Short term funding for specific purposes restricts agencies’ ability to meet individual young people’s needs “The person giving the information decides if it’s relevant, not the person asking for it” Frontline worker “Referring issues to other agencies so off-loading the problem to someone else - the agency merry-go-round” Sexual health worker

12. Poor service practice identified by ‘red flags’ at the multi-agency workshop includes examples of: focus on crisis work not prevention, delays in service, and lack of provision post 16 – and staff face problems too Often young people are not picked up by services before they get into a crisis Thresholds differ: it may not be possible to refer young people on because they don’t fit the age range or are not considered sufficiently in need Delays and waiting times in providing services to young people – waiting lists can be many months … … and the funding may have run out or the criteria changed before they get to the top of the list Young people lack awareness of provision and support Services fall off after 16, because of incorrect assumptions about needs, resulting in increased risk of disengagement, homelessness, mental health and other problems Staff feel under pressure of bureaucracy and caseload, feel they lack knowledge, and often suffer from high levels of stress and burn out. They feel under-supported and under-trained “Sometimes there’s a 4 month waiting list or more – but we need help for the young person now. It boils down to money” Education Welfare officer

13. In summary … Young people: • Generally find services easy to get in touch with, friendly and helpful on problems … • … but 13% of those who contacted services for help reported not having their problem solved Service providers: • Just over half feel that their own service is good or very good at meeting young people’s needs and nearly half feel they are OK or poor • Identify some areas of services which are working well, particularly where they consistently address young people’s needs and where partnership working is the norm … • … but there are many examples of services working so so or poorly, including poor inter-agency working, focus on crisis not prevention and long waiting times • Generally feel that performance in their own service falls some way short of what they identify as important service delivery factors • Would like to see more focus on meeting young people’s needs and on prevention than there is today • Suggest that more inclusive services and more choice for young people are ways of reducing stigmatisation of services • Feel that young people have different needs at different ages but do not want age-banded service silos to arise • Indicate that culture differences are greater between services than between levels within agencies

14. What is happening don’t know what can be shared things getting missed assumptions made about people don’t know if referral accepted no key-worker for young person information lost in school incompatible systems reluctance to share information don’t understand data protection Impact on young people not getting best support fed up with same old questions alienated from services confused over who is doing what delays while services seek data falling through gaps not attending interviews Impact on staff and services frustration and stress high staff turnover inefficient working – time wasted chasing information uninformed decision-making, based on assumptions not facts resources not allocated best way duplication and overlaps Lack of information sharing was picked as a top barrier to multi-agency workingat the multi-agency workshop Source: TYSP Multi-Agency Workshop

15. CAF: Identifies need – and pre-assessment can identify risk Helps identify which services best positioned to help the young person, Is basis for decision on who should be lead professional Offers shared framework for sharing information Lead professional: helps overcome confusion, gaps and overlaps and clarify who should be doing what Child Index: inclusive of all YP 0-19; identifies who involved with young person and how to contact them TYS to link with pilots of these in Develop and Deliver phase Build on extended schools, Children Centres, SNM pilots Build into learning community (school, colleges, training providers) partnership framework Build in commissioned remit for budget holding lead professional Requires multi-agency working, co-ordination, management, quality assurance The implementation of CAF, the lead professional and the Child Index will be key to addressing many of the issues around assessment, referral and data sharing in TYS

16. In summary … • There is some well established multi-agency working in Derbyshire, including examples of willingness to share data and to work together to solve problems • Key barriers to agencies working together are: lack of data sharing, poor referrals, different cultures, different priorities, different working practices and staff not knowing what other agencies do • The impact of agencies not working well together is significant, on young people, families, service staff and the local area • Service providers would like to see more ….. • CAF, lead professional and Child Index will be key to TYS going forwards • Service providers believe better knowledge and communication, together with common strategies and working practices would help them contribute to integrated frontline services for young people … • … but want to maintain their professional identity

17. In summary, there are compelling reasons to change without which we will be failing young people on some of the key outcomes • There is considerable momentum for change amongst service providers • Service providers recognise the need for all services to change, particularly: mental health services, LSC, Housing and Social Services • Service providers and young people would like to see more focus on young people and their needs, including listening to and involving them in service design and delivery • Service providers believe high quality services are responsive, work together well, are accessible and give young people improved outcomes • TYS needs to overcome the barriers of professional and organisational differences, different agendas and practices, unclear roles and responsibilities and funding issues • Change has to be put into context with the other initiatives that Derbyshire is working on – and any conflicts resolved

18. Next Steps

19. The key challenges from TYSP Phase 1 have been packaged into a programme of work TYSP PHASE 2 How to involve communities to create and find safe, clean places for all young people to want to go? Things to do, places to go: Involving young people, parents and families in service design and delivery How to identify young people who are vulnerable/at risk of not achieving Every Child Matters outcomes and utilise prevention and early intervention practice to build their confidence, resilience and coping skills • PROJECT MANAGEMENT • COMMUNICATIONS • STAKEHOLDER MANAGEMENT Prevention & early intervention: Closer working between agencies: How to build on existing effective practice to bring together all agencies and providers to work closer together and make it simpler and clearer for young people to get the right help

20. Draft outline remit for change teams

21. Next steps by the TYSP project team • Form change teams, including young people and parents/carers (approx 2 days a month to end October, tbc), who will take responsibility for developing solutions to the key challenges • Design and set up FastStart event in early July to bring change teams together, brief them on Phase 1 and plan Phase 2 in more detail • Design and deliver feedback sessions for young people • Identify actions for early implementation (no and low-cost actions which are quick to do) – eg park clean-ups - and form a rapid action team to drive them forwards • Support change teams in setting up multi-agency workshops to help develop principles around the Phase 2 key challenges and address key implementation challenges, also to build on the momentum for closer multi-agency working Phase 2 is planned to run to mid-October

22. Key Messages • Young people have shown us the levels of deprivation and the large numbers this affects. • The Targeted Youth Support Pathfinder is one of 14 nationally, and benefits from lessons learnt in the other 13. • There is commitment to change at all levels. • There is existing effective good practice. • There is recognition that providers of our youth support services are not joined up, but want to be. • There is evidence of positive impact on young people where multi agency working is effective. • Next steps include a “fast start event” and establishment of three Change Teams to address the three priorities: things to do and places to go; prevention and early intervention; closer working between agencies.

23. Key Messages continued… • Change Teams will bring together representatives of Children’s Trust partners, share knowledge, establish guidelines and principles for implementation, and provide toolkits for roll out. Their work will dovetail with existing local arrangements. • Change Team members will need to allocate time to carry out this role, and facilitate workshops i.e. to develop their proposals, and carry out their individual tasks between meetings. • Change Teams will begin to address the initial cultural issues associated with existing professional and service delivery boundaries. • Phase 1 successfully contributed to the moulding of the evolving strategy of the Children’s Trust and Children and Younger Adults Service. • Phase 2 priorities derive from detailed and evidence-based findings and give added impetus to the direction of travel of the Children’s Trust at local level. • Phase 2 is part of the new Children’s Trust arrangements for support for younger adults and to meet any additional needs .